Tucked away in the Champlain Valley within the Adirondack Park blue line lies a hidden gem amongst Cornell University's properties: The Cornell Willsboro Research Farm in Willsboro, Essex County. The farm, a 352-acre property, has served as the site of several Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program research projects over the years. While not our typical "feature farm" story, I wanted to highlight the Willsboro Farm to let our readers know about this resource and opportunities to interact with our work and staff there. As part of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station network, the Willsboro Farm hosts projects and outreach events to support crop production in Northern New York and beyond.

New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Commissioner Richard A. Ball today announced two grant opportunities totaling $21 million for projects that will help New York's farmers reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote energy savings, mitigate water and soil quality concerns, and increase on-farm resiliency to climate change. 

No matter how good your products are, retail success is driven by how well you market them. Here are 5 marketing tips to help increase traffic and sales at your farm market this season: Tip #1 - Check Your Signage: No matter how nice your market looks, people must be able to find it. Signs directing the customer to the market should be attractive, eye-catching, and easy to read from a distance. Signs should be visible far enough in advance to give the customer adequate time to decide to stop at the market and to safely enter the parking area. 

Hiring an employee can be a big step for a farm business.  In addition to the challenges of managing a new employee, there are lots of laws and regulations to comply with.  This article covers your main requirements for reporting new employees to the state, withholding tax, unemployment, and wage reporting. 

We are getting near that time of year when you will be hiring and training your seasonal workforce.  The Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Team (ENYCH) and the Lake Ontario Fruit Team (LOFT) have been collaborating with the Cornell Ag Workforce Development Program to develop resources for you to streamline the process and paperwork of hiring new employees.  This winter we reorganized many of those resources into a website to make them more accessible.

In January the Empire State Producers Expo will gather 900 attendees from the vegetable, small fruit and bedding plant/cut flower sectors in Syracuse for 3 days of educational classes on a huge variety of production-oriented, business management, environmental stewardship, food safety, marketing, and soil health topics. The Expo's trade show boasts a full collection of ag support and supply businesses serving the produce industry.  This year the Expo will also offer scholarships for attendance, a youth-education day (FFA Day), more hands-on learning opportunities and opportunities for grower networking.  

The Farm Laborer Fair Labor Practices Act (FLFLPA) regulating New York farm employers went into effect on January 1, 2020. Under the FLFLPA, overtime and day of rest rules were put in place for most non-supervisory, non-family farm employees. This meant that the overtime threshold for hired employees in New York agriculture now begins at 60 hours. In addition, the minimum wage for upstate New York continues to increase.  The New York Farm Labor Wage Board decided in late 2020 to keep the threshold at 60 hours for 2021 with the intention to revisit the policy with more data and analysis. The Dyson School at Cornell recently conducted a research project to examines the economic effects of New York overtime laws on farms in 2020 as well as assesses potential effects of lowering the limit. 

A few years ago, apple growers in NYS attended listening sessions to provide feedback to the USDA RMA's apple crop insurance program. USDA has just published a proposed rule that changes the program based on this feedback and is soliciting comments through the Federal Register until February 14^th, 2022.  The following press release discusses a few of the changes that are proposed, including higher insured price levels for direct marketed apples.  

ENYCHP has launched a new peer development and risk management program for next generation growers. The program is targeted to farmers in multi-generational farm operations looking to move into a leadership or ownership position on the family or other farm. The program offers opportunities to gain production and business skills while networking with peers in the region. 

A Chapter 12 Bankruptcy is a process, where a farmer, or farm family, under the protection of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, proposes a plan for treatment of the farm's creditors which achieves the goals of the farmer.

Frequently growers contact us asking about pricing for vegetable crops. This usually occurs just as the marketing season takes off. Answering this question is difficult for many reasons. There are no set rules for coming up with the appropriate prices for any crop and many factors come into play.  What is needed is for growers to know what it cost them to grow it.

The recently announced USDA Pandemic Response and Safety (PRS) Grant Program provides grants between $1,500 to $20,000 to farmers of eligible commodities[1][2], businesses that provide post-harvest packing and sorting of specialty crops, food processors/manufacturers (including meat slaughter and processing), food wholesalers (including food hubs), all farmers markets, and businesses offering refrigerated warehousing and storage of food products to respond to coronavirus, including for measures to protect workers against COVID-19.  

Agritourism is a critical activity and marketing approach for many of our farms, particularly in the fall. It provides customers with a unique outdoor opportunity for farm-based entertainment and food system education, as well the opportunity to purchase fresh produce grown close to home. This document provides management and communication strategies for agritourism activities for the 2020 season to support farms as they navigate the COVID-19 outbreak.

U-Pick is a critical direct marketing approach for many of our farms and provides
customers with a unique connection to fresh produce grown close to home. In light
of what we understand about the spread of COVID-19, new management practices
will be needed to protect your farm team and your customers. This document
provides recommended practices and communication strategies for U-Pick
operations for the 2020 season.

The PowerPoint file and link to the YouTube video of the January 2019 Grants for Farmers Webinar

The heroin and opioid epidemic has spread across the country in the last decade, and overdose deaths in rural areas are now surpassing those in urban areas. Access to prevention, treatment, and support services are typically lacking in rural or farming communities, leading to untreated addiction and increased overdose deaths. Additionally, recent reports show that those who work in occupations with higher rates of injury (farming, construction, roofing, etc.) where workers are less able to take time off to heal are more likely to medicate acute or chronic pain symptoms with opioids, leading to increased likelihood of addiction (MADPH, 2018).  

As a fruit and vegetable farmer, labor is one of your most important resources but being a manager also exposes you to risks.  To help prepare you for the 2019 growing season, the Eastern NY Commercial Hort Team, in collaboration with the Cornell Small Farms Program and the Cornell Ag Workforce Development Program and the Cornell Farmworker Program, is offering many opportunities for farmers and farm managers to improve their skills and gain important information in labor management this winter.

A 2017 report by USDA-AMS and the University of Kentucky is highlighting key trends in CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) in the United States and these trends are echoed in data I have collected on CSA farms in Eastern New York.  In Community Supported Agriculture - New Models for Changing Markets the authors Timothy Woods, Matthew Ernst, and Debra Tropp surveyed 495 CSAs in the USA and then conducted case-studies of six CSAs.  They found several changes compared to a national CSA survey, conducted in 20012.  They found (1) increasing competition, from other CSAs and from other market channels (2) increasing focus on customer service and choice and (2) growth of multi-farm and alternative types of CSAs.  They also found a decline in the number of certified organic CSAs.  In 2001 49% of CSA farms were certified organic.  In the 2017 survey only 27% were certified organic. These trends are echoed in data I collected on 106 CSAs in Eastern NY in 2017 and 20183 (Figure 1).  For example, I found that 26% of Eastern New York CSAs were USDA Certified Organic, like the national percentage. 

Smart Farming Teams

The Cornell Small Farm's Program Labor Ready Farmer Project is offering grants to provide up to 12 hours of Technical Assistance (TA) consulting services to farms who want to make improvements to their farm's processes in hiring, training, managing or evaluating employees. Applicants will choose from one of the following four areas for TA assistance and identify a specific project. If selected they will be matched with a "Smart Farming Team" of consultants who will provide one on one technical assistance.  Eligible applicants are: Beginning Farmers (10 or fewer years in farm ownership); NextGen Farmers (family members working on existing farms who are in line for succession, but do not own the farm yet - a NextGen farmer who has fewer than 10 years of farm ownership on a family farm could apply as a Beginning Farmer); Existing farm managers on a farm who is being groomed for succession of the farm or who plans to start their own farm - with the support of the farm owner.  There is also support for Latino farm workers who are looking to move into managerial roles on farms.

Application Deadline: Please Submit by January 31, 2019

Apple growers in New York are starting to see a new crop insurance option in some counties, Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO). I had a couple of questions about it in Ulster County last fall. Now that we are nearing time to sign up for crop insurance again, let's dig in a little deeper - what is SCO and why might you consider it?

This handout provides resources for starting a farm business.

Looking for a new farmers market to sell to this year? This is a listing of all farmers markets located in the 17 county region that the ENYCHP covers for 2018.

A good time to make New Year's resolutions is at the start of the new growing season. This year why don't you try adopting one or more of the following 8 key management strategies of good managers on your farm.